• This was in a large, metropolitan city in the United States.

• I'm well aware that being gay isn't a crime, I'm not sure why you're trying to convince me of that.

• Here's the thing: whenever I hear someone say "there are good therapists out there, keep looking until you find one," my immediate response is, "Fir how long, and with what money?" Therapists are expensive as shit (mine charges $125 per session to not have me locked up, and that's at her reduced rate), and almost none of them will take insurance, especially not the kind of insurance schmucks like me buy on the Marketplace. In my case, I've been going to therapists since 1995, and over the course of 9 therapists, they've all been shit. At what point am I allowed to trust my own instincts and my own experiences and determine that EVERY THERAPIST I'VE ENCOUNTERED HAS BEEN AN OVERPRICED ASSHOLE? At what point am I allowed to say, "Nope, this shit doesn't work, and I can't afford it" and not be told I just need to keep looking for something that, for all I know, does not exist?

Imagine you're standing by a tree with a knothole in it. Someone tells you that if you reach in the knothole, you'll get a candy bar. You reach into the knothole and a snake bites you. "Try again," that person says. "Keep trying until you get the candy bar!" So you reach in again, and get bitten eight more times, and still no candy bar. "Wow, you have really bad luck with knotholes," says the other person. "I've been getting candy bars from this knothole for three years. I'd just keep reaching into that knothole until you find that candy bar."

Would you really reach into the knothole a tenth time?